(Newser)
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Guatemala's President Otto Pérez Molina, due to his old job as head of intelligence services of the army, has been at the forefront of his country's drug war for more than 20 years. But despite "decades of big arrests and the seizure of tons of drugs," Pérez Molina writes in the Guardian, "consumption and production of damaging substances are booming." His solution? Not so much legalization—though he's certainly suggested as much in the past—as regulation, as with alcohol and tobacco. Drugs are "a public health issue that, awkwardly, has been transformed into a criminal justice problem."

The key, according to the president, is dropping "ideology" for a focus on how to "diminish the violence generated by drug abuse." Pérez Molina promises Guatemala will uphold its international commitments, however his government is not willing "to continue as dumb witnesses to a global self-deceit." And with a Summits of the Americas meeting coming this week in Colombia, Pérez Molina says it is no coincidence that the leaders most interested in his proposals are those who have also served in similar security and defense roles as he has. "Those of us who have experience on security matters know what we are talking about," he said.

Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem. * A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine. * The massive majority of adults who use drugs do so recreationally - getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning. * Apart from the huge percentage of people addicted to both sugar and caffeine, a small minority of adults (nearly 5%) will always experience the use of drugs as problematic. - approx. 3% are dependent on alcohol and approx. 1.5% are dependent on other drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroine etc. * Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who desire to do so. * Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits. * Due to Prohibition (historically proven to be an utter failure at every level), the availability of most of these mood-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour. * Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement - even whole governments, while inducing an incalculable amount of suffering and death. * Apart from the fact that the DEA is the de facto enforcement wing of the pharmaceutical industry, the involvement of the CIA in running Heroin from Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, and Cocaine from Central America has been well documented by the 1989 Kerry Committee report, academic researchers Alfred McCoy and Peter Dale Scott, and the late journalist Gary Webb. * It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste trillions of dollars in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets. * The United States jails a larger percentage of it's own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes, yet it has far higher use/addiction rates than most other countries. * Prohibition is the "Goose that laid the golden egg" and the lifeblood of terrorists as well as drug cartels. Both the Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda derive their main income from the prohibition-inflated value of the opium poppy. An estimated 44 % of the heroin produced in Afghanistan, with an estimated annual destination value of US $ 27 Billion, transits through Pakistan. Prohibition has essentially destroyed Pakistan's legal economy and social fabric. We may be about to witness the planet's first civil war in a nation with nuclear capabilities. - Kindly Google 'A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST GROUPS' Only those opposed or willing to ignore these facts want things the way they are.

BlackLyingMonkeys

Apr 8, 2012 8:06 PM CDT

Perez is 100% correct - Here in the USA everyone is making too much money from drugs. Politicians, Drug companies, Law enforcement, Lawyers, the list goes on. Only the Libertarians have the stones to say the truth. Democrats and Republicans are afraid to touch this one.

stevsie

Apr 8, 2012 4:28 PM CDT

ever notice everything we declare "war" on becomes an epidemic. why can't the stupid people figure this out?